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Broken City
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Joined on 11-02-2006
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-Audioslave
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Posts 3,713
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Alright, this is the master thread that you have all been waiting for. Sorry that it took so long, but after weeks of hard labor, this is the fruit of my efforts. It is the master list of every good idea that has been put out by this Game Suggestion Forum. I would like to thank all of the people who spent there time here, in hopes to make this game better. MOD’s I hope you are reading this, this is the one thread that would need to look at. With that out of the way, let me begin.The title of each idea is the name (and link of the thread). Some of them have been renamed for space purposes. The title is a link to the original thread. After that is a brief description of what the idea is about, and why it should be put into the game. On some of the larger ideas, there are links to important points that were made. This are listed at the end as a hyperlink. There is also a rating system that goes along with this.***** = Five stars is a must have**** = Four stars means it is a really good idea that should be put into the game. *** = Three stars is something that is a good idea, and would be very cool, but can be left out** = Two stars means we would like to have it in, but if it takes up too much disc space, leave it out* = One star means it is minor, and could easily be added into the game = No star means it is a suggestion for units/heroes, and isn’t really a concept for the game play itself or is irrelevant.One more thing, for those of you who have threads in ascending order/posts newest to oldest. When you click on the link, remember that it will take you to the last post, not the first post.Grunt Lord’s FactionsBrute Faction made by me- This and the following are a list of multiplayer factions to be used to add variability to the game, designed by Grunt Lord.Other Factions and Unit ThreadsHalo Wars Mega Idea Thread- Well, Hellfire put a lot of work into this, and it’s pretty good. He makes some good points, has a couple nice ideas, and some good reminders for the designers. It deserves more than just a casual read through.Tech Tree/Buildings/Units- These are pretty mutch the same thread made by UNSC AI #23 in General Discussion, and Game Suggestion. This is the one from Game Suggestion. Tech Tree/Units/Buildings- This is the one from General Discussion. My Suggestions- Arbiter 101 made this list of units and some heroes.Bungie.net Wishlist- Ciaran Luke had some good ideas here, they’re just kind of hard to read without any paragraphs and commas. He’s got a list of some units and heroes that you could take a look at. The rest of his ideas are repeated in some thread below.Possible Types of Human and Covenant Forces- By Ninja Paladin, trust me, this guy knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the military.Unsc/Covie Units Suggestions- Yeah, there are probably too many of these, but this one does talk about different abilities and such.UL71M4 G33K's Guide to Vehicles- A very nice and complete list of vehicles. It has some vehicles that warrant a look, vehicles that haven’t been thought of before, but are good concepts.Weapons- Here is a list of various weapons that could be put in the game, along with their critical and resistant targets.Weapon/Armor Types & Combat Effectiveness- Includes how weapon effectiveness could be balanced, and some possible upgrades that could be used in line with the “Equipment System” re-assigning.Shields, Armor, and Other Stuff- Another thread on combat effectiveness and different advantages from RonTom.Lotus Anti-Tank MINES- You should be able to access mines from the armory, and lay them down wherever you please.
Stalkers- Put in stalkers. They would be pretty cool to see.
Drinol- Drinols would also be cool to see. Land BattlesMega Thread: Ideas/Suggestions on Halo Wars game play- One of the big ideas here is to bring in troops via pelicans. This would be semi-realistic, because when in modern warfare did we train units on the spot? *****Suggestion for Battalions- Instead of having units only be in one group at a time, make them cross-assignable. That way, you could have a reserve squad made up of units from a couple battalions that could be called on if you are flanked. These groups would be able to be assigned on the fly, or beforehand. You could make up the names for them (blue 1, red 3) in the formation editor. Also, the Covenant’s system should be different from the Humans, because they were less organized.*****Group Sizes- This follows closely with the “Suggestion for Battalions.” It’s just a better way to implement it into the game. Vehicles would be grouped the same way that units would. You build the amount of units you want, and the amount of vehicles, and send that battalion into the vehicles. You can either name the vehicles, or use the group that is in the vehicle. List of Groups in Proper Order *****Formations- You have a formation editor, and can create formations for your units, bringing you even closer to the game experience. When you’ve selected your battalion or squad, you choose their formation from a dropdown menu on the side of the screen. From the editor, you choose where you want the units to be. This can be specific (riflemen) or general (light infantry). You can have them on default for defending the vehicle in the middle. You can also name these. From this, you would also be able to make the names of your squads and platoons. Stances You would also be able to select the stances you want the units to be in from the editor. These would be able to be changed on the fly in a battle, and the formation would just read as Modified block or Modified cover formation.****Stance Adv./Dis.- This could work by itself, or in accordance with the Formation idea. Also, even though I have links to two different stances (here a & above), the base idea remains the same. With different stances, you would receive different bonuses. In the thread is a list of these advantages and disadvantages for each stance. There could be some passive system in place, where x number of guys denotes x% increase, etc. Or, when creating the formation in the editor, you would have x% points to dish out to bonuses, and the stances bonus would be nulled, to erase over stacking of advantages.*****Armory (Equipment System)- The link of this one is the summary of the whole thread. After about 4 pages, we seemed to have nailed the idea, so I just put up the summary. It is on page 4. That summary is the description. There is one thing that might have been overlooked, though, and this is the ability to re-train soldiers. Soldiers would get a bonus, if they are trained in that weapon. You could then go back to the barracks, and spend the money to change their proficiency, or, for more money, make them proficient in more than one weapon. And as someone else said, the more you have a unit with a weapon, they would eventually become proficient in that weapon, and thereby get the bonus.****Unit Info/Description Databank- An idea for a pop-up in-game help/description panel that gives statistics and information on every unit, building and technology. The database is changed after every mission as articles are unlocked, created or updated. The information can change to reflect the campaign's story or events that happen within the game. The panel is displayed like a UNSC database, with ONI editing, censorship and classified information inside some of the articles. The basic unit info (health, attack, weapons carrying, etc.) would be on the bottom, but if you clicked on their portrait (on the UI), this info box would pop up. Later on, this idea could be tied in with “replenishment.”****Radio Man- You build your unit like you always would. You can then give them a radio pack from the armory, thus turning him into the radioman. He would be able to call in various things that you could use to help out on the battlefield. Either they could function as a mobile barracks, or you would call in things similar to a powers menu. The farther along in the game you are the bigger stuff you can get. If a unit dies, you could pick up his pack, if it hasn’t been damaged. There would be a limit on how many packs you have, and how much stuff you could call in at once. Also, the pelicans could be shot down from the sky, en route, like in the supply depot. Abilities ****Ability to Steal Technology- Albion Defender came up with the ability to steal enemy technology. So did Imness, but that is another topic. This idea evolved into being able to pick up an enemies weapon when they’ve died, and use it to your own advantage. You could also store them in your armory, and pick them up when needed. The Covenant wouldn’t be able to use human tech (except AI) because it was considered inferior, but they could take back their weapons from dead marines.****Battle Scarring/Terrain Bonuses- This thread talks about how you should be able to use different things for cover. It also says that units should use holes left by tanks (battle scarring) as cover. Just keep in mind that if the covenant torch a forest, you won’t have that cover anymore. Also, flanking comes into play here. Let’s not forget urban battles where you can blow the crud out of any building you see.
Landscaping Halo Style- Just a little thing slightly related. One idea was to have several different maps for one planet, or some sort of randomization to them. Don’t make the Sigma Octavis IV map the same, even though it’s a whole planet.*****Cover/Flanking- Cover is definitely one those things that should be put into Halo Wars. And, as we’ve seen from the montage, it looks like it will be. But, this thread discusses the idea as a whole. Later in the thread, it talks about how when you’re behind cover, you should have a very low hit rate. After all, when you’re sitting behind a wall, it wouldn’t make sense that someone on the other side is hitting you. Now comes in the purpose of flanking. When you flank someone, you’re behind cover, but they’re not, allowing you to rip through their lines like butter, while they can’t hurt you. The point of cover is to make it actually like cover that you’d use in real life. Don’t make it something where you get a 5% defense bonus. **Creatable Cover- I know that you ES already has the option of having your guys “dig in” in Halo Wars, but this might be possible as well. Sometimes, cover is not so readily available around your base, so what if you could make some of your own? All it would be is some simple barricade that we’ve all come across many-a-time in the Halo games. You could just hook it up to a pelican, and drop it where you want it, giving a good defense for choke points and the like.Tagged Units- This idea is parallel to the radar system used in Supreme Commander. Without radar, you can’t see beyond your fog of war. When things are on the edge of your fog of war, they are seen as grey boxes. This signifies that something is there, but it’s unknown. When you have a radar station, everything within range of that radar station (and in FoW) is seen as a grey box. In the case of Halo Wars, I think that there should be a difference in the way a grey infantry box and a grey vehicle box looks (aircraft was displayed as a triangle and vehicles were diamonds in Supreme Commander, with naval units as semi-circles and structures as squares). Once you have a visual confirmation, that grey boxes becomes colored (for the player’s color) and a symbol, or some other form of unit identification is on the box. This identification will stay with that unit as long as it is within range of the radar. If it leaves, and returns, it becomes unknown. Also, buildings (since they are immobile) remain as their colored box once identified, as long as they are in range of radar. This is key to strategy in keeping up to tabs with your enemy.Scouts- The scout would have a line of site identical to a normal unit. But, they’d be able to spot units (grey boxes) at a much larger range, due to greater vision (and portable radar?). Also, with their binoculars, they’d have a power similar to the spyglass of the Portuguese explorer in AoE30. But, with a limited range, of course. When you click the button, you’d set out a path for him to look at, like setting up waypoints. You should also be able to set a “patrol” route for him to look, constantly scanning back and forth. There’d be a circle of where you’d see the units, and a small circle around that would be the grayed boxes. Of course, unless you had radar, the boxes would disappear when he’s finished looking. But, if you do, then they’d stay as their colored box. The binocular ability of a scout could prove vital if you saw a group of enemy units approach, but didn’t know what they were.Snipers- The key thing to remember about snipers is that they have a weapon range longer than their line of sight. They are not invisible, and can be seen and spotted with radar like any other units. But, they don’t have a tracer on their shot, so you won’t be able to see where it’s coming from. Units sitting behind cover and not doing anything should not be able to be hit by a sniper from the opposite side. You could use which units are getting hit (i.e. the way their cover is facing) to determine the location of the sniper. If it’s a skirmish and they’re popping up to shoot, then they should be vulnerable to sniper fire. It would be in a player’s best interest to pair up a sniper with a scout (mentioned above). This way the scout could find some units, and then the sniper would take them out. By himself, the sniper would also be able to use his scope similar to the binocular ability. But, it’d have a smaller radius, greater range, and no grey boxes on the edges. You should also have the ability for the sniper to “auto-hunt” to lessen micro-managing. You’d set up a “patrol” route for his scope scan, or a set up a box, where he’d scan on auto, and proceed to eliminate all the units in that area*Commander/Hero Compromise- Instead of having heroes like in BFME2 with special powers, use commanders that give bonuses to the troops that are around them. “Heroes” would just be a better version of the commander. Idea Re-thought Spartans Don’t have the Bonus*Veteran Upgrades- Pretty self-explanatory. I just want to make sure ES doesn’t leave it out. The more enemy units a soldier kills, the better they become. One new advantage to an elite soldier is getting an accuracy bonus, and their default range is increased.***Covenant Unit Deployment- This is a very intriguing idea by Spartan-228. It says that since the Covenant never really used barracks on any planets, they get trained a different way. They either get called down by the radio-man, or they get trained from ships, which are eventually depleted. This would be for those of you who want the game to be like Ground Control 2, where all of your units get called in, and for the crowd who want a game where you only have xxx amount of units to fight with. Also, depending on how well you do in the space battle, the less ships, or the less soldiers the covenant could call in. Sound realistic?****Customizable Research and Units- Imness came up with the idea of gaining bonuses or special weapons if you take enemy weapons. You can dissect them and study them, and thereby unlock various research. Example: You send out your engineers to inspect a wraith tank. They take the armor back and study it. After spending some money to research the new armor, you can now buy heavier armor for the armory that can be put on a scorpion to make it stronger. Or, if you’ve taken enough plasma rifles, you can make plasma resistant armor. Two Other Threads with the Same Concept, Just a Different Use ***Prototypes- Nice one by Ares that can be coupled with Imness’ idea (above). When you first start to research stolen objects, you can only make prototypes of them. They are unreliable, and can sometimes bust. They are slightly more expensive. After you’ve collected quite a few more objects, they can then be mass produced with ease.***Shields- Kazzong suggested the idea that there should be neutral shields on the map that players could take control of and use to their advantage. You pick it up, and your units are defended. It allows units to pass through, and you can shoot out of it, but shots can’t come in. You carry it with you till you die, and then your enemy picks it up at full capacity. If it goes down (from taking too much damage) then it takes some time to recharge. Further down, I mention finding forerunner artifacts on the battlefield. These two could work together, as the shields could be from the forerunners.Or, you could just build shields on your own at your base. But, another thing suggested is the concept of having different types of shields for different purposes and counters. What I mention are anti-matter and anti-energy shields. One blocks the passage of bullets, bombs, and units, while the other blocks lasers, plasma, and blasts from bombs. Of course, you could just build one big shield that incorporates both of these. But that’s not necessarily the important part. What’s important is the idea of having some quick little shields that you could put up countering different tactics, without wasting resources on one “mega-shield.” ****Persistence- Once again, this is a fairly straightforward thread. In the campaign, let your units carry over to the next mission. If there is a map that is directly related to a previous one, the units that you had in the earlier game, would appear exactly as they were in the current game. If your units were traveling through a mountain, and made it out in very bad shape, then in the mission where they come out and assault an enemy base, they should have the same few units. This allows the player to think ahead, and make more strategic decisions when it comes to battles.****Progression- This kind of goes along with persistence, and would help deepen the storyline. You would be able to carry over your customizable research over through the rest of the campaign. In the campaign, it would take a significant amount of time to get, but carry over. In skirmish mode, it would take a small amount of time, but would go away each game. Buildings would also be “upgradable” in the same way, whether through cash, or accomplishments. And, if you read a little farther down, you’ll come across “fortifications.” This could also be applied to that. ****Aircraft: Unit & Power- A discussion on whether aircraft should be units or powers, that ended up being a little bit of both. We eventually settled that major/fast aircraft should be built off map, as they are in the real world. You’d still pay for them like any other unit, except they’d be queued up on an airfield that’s off-map. When you’re in need of them, you’d call them in (using power button “Y”?). You should also be able to determine how much aircraft you want to bring in. Supreme Commander did a good job with realistic air battle, so I’m sure you guys at ES can do just as well. I know you guys already have the light aircraft (hawks) built at base, and that’s fine. But, if you look at modern combat, the bigger guns are stored at an air base that is safely away from the conflict (in the case of the US, they’re stored off-continent from the conflict). For the covenant, there aren’t really any planes that they stored off-map, so I guess that’s up for you guys to decide. This idea, as a whole, would also add a certain element of surprise, because you’d never know the air-power of your enemy.***Planetary War- For the campaign, or a skirmish mode, there would be a giant map of the planet you are on. This would be divided into smaller sections, which would be the playable maps. Think of it as War of the Ring from Battle for Middle Earth 2. Certain territories would have certain significance and value. For example, some would control the amount of time it takes for the resource pelican drops to arrive, or how much they carry. Some would serve as airfields, (mentioned above) and the aircraft in them would carry on through the game. The farther away the airfield is, the longer it would take for the planes to arrive. Some territories could also allow certain technologies for your troops, such as better armor or weaponry. If the territory is lost, that research wouldn’t be available until it’s recaptured.***Territorial Borders- Here, Kazzong talks about a line(s) drawn across the map to show the extent of your territory. This could be the same line, or different from the line of sight line mentioned at the bottom under “Mini-Map.” The original concept, from Rise of Nations, was that you would only be able to build inside this line. In Halo Wars, you’re only allowed to build inside your base, so that clearly wouldn’t work. But, there could be other purposes for this line. A good example would be how far away you could build turrets, or how far away you could keep your units before they start to lose morale. I’m sure there are plenty of other implementations that you guys at ES could do.***Foxholes- Jrdnstep came up with a good idea that many of us overlooked; foxholes and trenches. Your engineers can build trenches, set up insta-crete bunkers around them, and you can set up chain gun nests. Razor/Barbed wire can be set up around these trenches, along with mines. You tell your units to take cover in the trench work, and they fire out***Tunneling- This one was thought up by rogueshell14. It could easily be added to the circle menu used for digging foxholes. When selected, your men would start to tunnel underground to form a secret passageway through the map. The enemy would be able to see the entrance/exit, and use the tunnel to their advantage if you don’t guard it. Or, they could simply blow it up, and listen to your men scream as they die. When dug under the enemy’s base, you could collapse it, sending their structures crashing down, or you could set one as a trap. There are two ways to destroy a tunnel. One is to block of the openings. This would send up a little warning on the screen, and when you press D-pad (direction) it will take you to your guys. From there, you’ll have about a minute from them to dig out, or the oxygen runs out, and they die. Or, you could hit the tunnel with enough of a bang, that it collapses. This could be achieved through orbital bombardment, the sporadic laying of mines on the interior (or above ground), or the accidental explosion from above e.g. a wraith or scorpion shot.****Outposts- One type of game type (or just the default) would be to make the outposts very hard to capture. When you take the outpost, you would be able to heavily reinforce it. Put down some insta-crete, set up some trenches, lay down a couple machine gun nests, you know the deal. This would make the game more dynamic, such that the games would take longer, and every inch of the battlefield would be a fight. Instead of having your units cross endless terrain to get to your enemies base, you would have to make your way though hostile territory.****Supply Depots- One way that you would be able to collect resources would be through supply depots. These would be stationed at points around the map, or you could build them at your base (or both). These depots would have a pre-determined enter/exit spot for the ship. The ship would then fly in and drop of the resources to the depot. The planes can be shot down, bringing up the importance of defending your supply lines. There would be upgrades at the depot to make your ship move faster, have guns on it, etc. Now the supply depot is not only limited to bringing in resources.The whole Mega Thread: Ideas/Suggestions on Halo Wars game play started from the idea of bringing units by pelicans. If ES used this type of game play, then this would be the perfect medium to use. Another use for this would be for the armory. When you run out of a weapon, you buy xxx more, and it is brought in via-pelican.****Pelican Drops- This is the completed version of the idea mentioned above.*Outpost Pad- The outpost pad would be an add-on to the outpost. You would be able to build a pad for pelicans on it, and it would function very similarly to the supply depot mentioned above.*****Fortifications- Another add on to the outpost. When an outpost is captured, you have a variety of fortifications (buildings) that you could choose to build on that outpost. You can only build one. This fortification would act like any garrison able structure on the map, except for a few differences. For one, the units inside would get some sort of defense bonus. Next, you would be able to build a garage for vehicles, or a landing pad (see above “outpost pad”), or weapon emplacements, or an armory, etc. The different fortifications that you choose would have different pros and cons, so you could select the one that would be most beneficial to you. When an enemy comes in, they would be able to take the outpost, along with the fortification. And, if they wished, would be able to keep whatever you had stored there (weapons, vehicles, etc.)One most thing that was brought up here was the actual capture of the buildings themselves. When you send a unit into a building, the building would become semi-transparent. You would only be able to see the part of the building where your units were. Everything else would be grey. You then station them, and have them shoot out of the building, like in other RTS’s. When you see an enemy come in, you can try to move your guys around, to try and get out without any contact. Or, you can set your guys up around some cover, and wait for them to come at you. Now there would be some tricks to this too. You could set up cameras before entering the building, so portions where the cameras are would be illuminated. Of course, the enemy would be able to see the LOS of the cameras, too, and could take them out if they wanted to take that long. If you were really in the mood, you would also be able to plant down a mine at the entrance (remember, you would have to carry it from armory). When it blows, the whole building would collapse killing you and your pursuers.To solve some control issues, you would click once for the default attack. Whether you were inside or outside, you would stay that way, and shoot out or in. If you wanted to enter/exit and attack, you would double click on the target. Or, you could set up waypoints. ***Distance vs. Accuracy- By using a slide bar, or using various stances, you would be able to change the range at which you want your units to attack. Depending on close or far away they are, they get accuracy bonuses or penalties. Using this, you would actually provide “cover” fire, and stay out of their range. This could also be used for vehicles, and be changeable in the formation editor. These stances also play in with the stances under “formations”*Vehicle Drivers- A vehicle comes out with a driver, that’s it. You can then put in whatever guys you want into it once the vehicle is finished. Remember, you would only be able to fire the warthog’s gun if you have a passenger.*Vehicle Ejection- Even though it has been stated that the vehicle comes out with a driver, this can still apply to transport vehicles. When a vehicle is blow up in transit, some of the crew should survive. In real life, they would bail out. In the game, when the vehicle dies, you should see some guys jumping out, but they wouldn’t die. You’d get a good portion of your guys back, but they’d be at a lower health. Personally, I’d be very angry if a transport carrying some spartans blew up, and the spartans went with it. It wouldn’t make sense either.*Friendly Fire- Have collateral damage with the big guns. That way, like Reclaimer said, you wouldn’t have guys bombarding the whole time from the back line. If you and some elites are dishing it out hand to hand, when a wraith joins the party, the elites shouldn’t survive. The same goes with machine guns and assault rifles. If you have a huge crossfire, and soldiers blindly firing back and forth, someone’s bound to be hit. Put stray bullets in there; just don’t make it so noticeable that the player is screaming in frustration because he is always killing himself. Put it in there, just not as noticeable. ****Kill a Scarab- There should be multiple ways to kill a scarab to make it fair. Some good ideas were sending in some marines to climb up and take it out, or landing them via pelican on it. You would also be able to do the typical “throw everything we’ve got at it” approach. It should have a health limit, just make sure it is worth the money, but not invincible. The scarab would also be extremely customizable. There would also be many different variations of the weapons you could choose to put on, depending on how much you want it to cost. When seeing this, the opponent would then be able to deduct what strategy is best to take out the scarab.***Killed in vehicle- This is a harder one to figure out. Exactly how would you determine whether or not the bullets hit the soldier, or if they hit the warthog. First of all, the angle would have to make sense. If someone is in front of a warthog, shooting at it, then they wouldn’t be abele to hit someone through the glass. I think that there should be some probability setting depending on what unit they are using. When you are shooting with an explosive weapon, then it would hit the vehicle, and do some damage to the driver, if the vehicle is still running. If you are firing with a rifle, or minor plasma, the shots should have some sort of percentage on whether they hit the driver, or the vehicle. Of course, if this doesn’t work out (the units keep on dying for no reason, leaving the player chucking the controller across the room), then just keep the vehicle only damage. But if the vehicle does receive some damage, then the units should come out with a minor detriment in their health. Doesn’t affect Spartans or other heavily armored units.****Crippled Units Still Fight- If a units health gets really low (I’m talking the 5-10% range), then to make it realistic, like NinjaPladin said, their rate of fire would slow down, to show that they are injured. Doesn’t affect Spartan’s (remember the landing on Fall of Reach), or OSDT’s.*Dropping Turrets from Drop Ships- You build a turret, you assign some guys to it, they can move it around, or you can drop it from a ship, the squad and the turret work together when in a fight. Turret squads can be customized in formation editor. This would let you form little turret squads.*Running Over Enemies- In certain cases, the vehicle would run over the enemy. These cases include: the vehicle lacks any form of a gunner, you have the vehicle set on a hand-to-hand or some other stance that causes them to run over them, or you simply have them move to the ground where the unit is occupying. Depending on how strong the vehicle or the unit is, the vehicle would be slowed and receive some damage. Maybe, in the armory, you could have some ram attachment for tanks that could be used to lower or erase this impediment. ****Day & Night- There are several ways that this could be done. These range from just a simple shader change, to a very complex system of sleeping and tiredness. What I’m looking for is a nice balance of the two. When it starts to get dark out, soldiers (on both sides) start to loose their accuracy. As the night progresses, this grows greater, and starts to lessen as the sun rises again. Also, camo or stealthed units would receive a bonus when it gets darker, and the LOS could decrease a little as well. If you wanted to gain an edge as humans, you would be able to research night vision. The covenant should get some bonuses as well to make things even.I think that if sleep were included, things might get a little to complicated for the player. Not only would they have another unit stat bar to keep track of, but they’d also have to keep tally of what soldiers are getting tired, etc. I just don’t feel that it would contribute to the gaming experience.**Sandbox Mode- In Age of Empires, Sandbox was treated as a difficulty level, where your enemy did nothing except watch the pretty flowers grow. It’s main purpose is to bring a new player into the game, right? Well, why not add a completely new version of that. Sandbox would now be a completely different mode of game play where everything is free. It would allow the player to jump right into the action, without waiting at all. To make things a little more fair, you could change the aggressiveness of the player (as in regular skirmish mode), and limit the tech you can buy. Or, perhaps you could have some sort of “check-box system” or a timer that holds your production of a unit until 5 minutes in. This ensures that you don’t have 10 scarabs storming around the map, to be met by 10 NOVA’s. In all, this would appeal to the newer crowd, looking to figure the complex fighting style, and the older, looking for some big booms. If someone new is looking to test out economy, they could merely try out the game on easy.Fuel- Having units and vehicles run out of fuel would make it real, but really impend the gaming experience. Don’t use it. However, it would be interesting to see in a future game by ES. Take a look at the Ammo Refill Center for a good example of how it could be implemented.Space Battles*****Space Battle Twist (Ship Battle) - In the space battle, you would have the option of boarding an enemy ship. Each ship would have a certain amount of manpower (nice one TacoMaster) to start out with. This manpower would be determined by the size of the ship. When a ship takes damage, the manpower decreases (people are dying). When you send out fighters, the manpower decreases. When the manpower drops below a certain point, the ship loses some functions, and is only able to do minimal processes. It would then take longer for other processes to operate when switching between (after firing a weapon, it would take longer to start up the engines, due to lack of personnel). When boarding an enemy ship, you select the manpower that you would like to use to attack the enemy ship. From this manpower, you determine what and how many units you are using to launch the attack. The enemy defense forces would just get the manpower that they have left, and the systems would be affected accordingly (by how many die).When you board the enemy ship, it would be like your own little battle. There would also be an auto-resolve button, and you would be able to jump in at any time. You can assign squads, and anything else like in a normal RTS mode. You would be able to take cover behind crates, and change the distance settings, etc. There would be several ways to win. 1. Defeat all enemy forces residing on the ship 2. Disabling critical systems, causing the ship to explode 3. Plant charges in reactor, or other critical points, and run away (or just suicide). When attacking, there would be some screen issues. There were essentially three ways this could be done. You could just have the outside battle pause, you could the screen split, one with the space, on with the ship, or just have the ship be transparent. Bridge Bonuses Cargo Bay/Reinforcements *****Space Battles: Yes or No?- I think the general consensus was a yes. Space battles would be cool to see. You would either have them as a standalone battle, or have them as a precursor to a land battle. Enemy reinforcements would then be affected on how many ships you destroy.****Naval Battles- This is a link to a better summary of the ideas. Since large battleships never played a part in Halo, the naval battles would consist of light assault boats (thank you toaterking) which you could use to land troops behind enemy lines, or wherever you pleased. These could be mountable with weapons from the vehicle armory (carried over by a warthog or a couple guys) because they would be attackable by Covenant air.Discussion About Possible Space Battles.- I really didn’t participate in this, but it does have some possible space battles (hence the title) and various other helpful odds and ends.****SPACE...BATTLES... (Drool)- Started by Spartan458 to ask about space battles. It evolved into the disadvantages the covenant would have, the more ships you destroyed. Among these are the fewer soldiers they could call in, the resources they could call in, and amount of plasma bombardment they could use.MultiplayerSplit Screen?- Split screen would only work with co-op. If it were used in a player vs. player map, it wouldn’t work. How would you be able to use any tactics at all, if your enemy could see every move that you made, and vice versa? Split screen would be cool, but it would only really function under co-op, which would be dominant. When was the last time you played a split screen RTS? ***MMO-RTS- Here, Albion Defender suggest a massive multiplayer game that would be pretty cool. You team up with your clan, and make your way through the universe, taking over all the planets that you can. In Case They Get Too Powerful Miscellaneous****Victory/Balance- Overall, this thread is somewhat confusing. Its main purpose was how realistic the balancing would be. The humans usually won on the ground, but always ended up losing the planet due to glassing. It eventually evolved into the different victory scenarios that one could have. I would suggest to ES something similar to what they did in Age of Empires 2. I liked how for the skirmish mode, you had various game types you could play. This would be similar for Halo Wars. Victory Scenarios *****Money- This is probably one of the questions most hard for game developers to answer. How are we going to collect resources? Depending on what route you take, you could very well change most aspects of the game. There are several ways to collect resources. The first and more predominant (and the only one used by ES) is gathering via villagers or worker units. This can be called collection. You send out your units and have them collect resources from around the map. The next type is farming. Like in the BFME series, you build a resource building, and it continues to roll in $$$ independent of anything else. The third type is collection via outposts. We’ll call this outposting. You send out your soldiers, and they capture key positions on the map that roll in $$$ like farms do. The enemy can capture them too. The final type is to make resources irrelevant. Many people have used Ground Control II as a basis for this. You have a set amount of guys, and all you do is call in more. There is no money involved, whatsoever. A good idea would to have multiple sources of income, to increase the strategy that the player uses i.e. command posts and supply drops.***AI- This thread merely says that we don’t want the AI stupid. For all of us who don’t play XL, make it so we can still have fun going against the computer. There would be variability in the AI, and you would select what kind of AI you wanted with various sub-categories such as difficulty and game play style (offensive vs. defensive) and strategies (more flanking, turtling etc.)Targeting System- This kind of goes along with the smart AI. Give the units some sense of who’s shooting at them. The more damage they are taking from one group, the more they concentrate fire on that one group. Or, you could set them in air/ground stances, but I think that would just get tedious. In general, just program the squads to work together. Also, they should be able to shoot and run at the same time. The disadvantage of this would be an accuracy penalty.***Artificial Intelligence- The artificial intelligence would serve as an aide for the player. Not only would they provide hints and deployment suggestions, but when coupled with intel. gained via satellites and spies, they would be able to give you even better suggestions based off of what your enemy is doing. They would also aide in unit creation and various other minute tasks that would make it easier for you to focus on the battle at hand. A word of caution towards ES, though. This is one of those things that could either make or break it. If done right, it would be spectacular. But, if done wrong, would end up just being plain out stupid. Since I don’t know the exact programming complications, I’ll leave it up to ES. AI Tasking***Replenishment- Just a cool little thing to add if there is an in game AI. You can have it set so that when your unit dies, the AI automatically builds another group of units in its place. This would help the player focus more on tactics, than unit creation. At you HQ, you see the list of all the units that you have. This should be default in the game when you select your squads. Using this menu, you can change the unit that would re-spawn when it dies. The default setting is off. You can then select the units that you want to replenish, and when you click on a little icon next to it, it automatically replenishes. Using some button or another, you would also be able to change the unit in which you want it replenished by (and change the armor/weapons you want it to have). When this feature is active, there would have to be a bar where you set the maximum amount of resources able to be used. If you don’t want your resources to get to low, you set it to 1,000, and then the replenishment doesn’t go over that amount.Keep in mind that there would be a queue icon that you could turn on (like in Age of Empires). It would show which guys are automatic, and which ones you have built. You would have the ability to stop the replenishment of a soldier here, or as said earlier, at the HQ. If there is an AI, this could be set up by the AI. If not, then the player can do it.*Do Not Make Covenant Evil- Nice job of WAZ11 for pointing this out. The Covenant aren’t evil at the core. They just follow orders, like anyone else does. When doing animations/voiceovers for the covenant, don’t make them demonic or evil. Just make them like they should be.*1st Person CAMERA VIEW- Deathjestor came up with the idea for having a switch to a first person view during the game. It was decided that the first person view should only be accessed from a game replay, because it would be too hard to control your units in a live game.****Fog-of-War- All I’m proposing here is just a more realistic version of the Fog of War. The unit would have a Line of Sight (LoS) in a V shape in front of him, and have limited view to the sides and behind. If you wanted, you would be able to set your troops in a porcupine formation (custom) to greatly increase their LoS. One thing about the LoS would be in how it deals with elevation. If there is a mound in front of you, you should not be able to see what’s on the other side of that hill. And, if there are units on top of that hill, their range will be greatly increased. This would make it realistic and show the player the vulnerability of units climbing up a hill. It would also add to the use of ambushes.****Mini-Map- You would be able to set up various types of cameras on the map that would show up on the mini-map (and cycle through them) . Regular cameras would just reveal the fog-of-war (FoW). Another type would be infa-red, which you could use to reveal stealthed units. On the screen, they would show up as semi-transparent. Another cool feature to this would be a radar station. If you set up a radar station, on the mini-map, the enemy units in the FoW would show up as green bleeps. The covenant would also have some sort of counter to this. Another new and cool idea would be the addition of the enemy’s LoS on the screen and mini-map. To aide in stealth units, you would be able to know where you need to sneak around. Other than that, the mini-map would be similar to any other game. One thing I want to remind ES is to be able to click on the mini-map, and move to that location.*****Physics- Put a good physics system into Halo Wars. If someone walks over a mine, they don’t do a twirl and fall down, they fly. If someone gets hit with a rocket, they don’t flop onto the ground, they soar. If someone is hit with a scorpion, they disappear. I think you get the idea.***Urgency- When the enemy gets within a certain range of your base, you are able to set a unit build time as “urgent” These units are rushed out the door, with inferior training, resulting in a penalty to accuracy, damage, and defense/armor. They would also cost a little more than normal units would. Again, this would only be available when the enemy is attacking your base (when they’ve passed the range line of base). Or, they could do something like in AoE with the minutemen. It would be the same sort of concept, except that there would just be a cool-down time for it. You would eventually get it again.****Map Editor- Give us a map editor. It would be really cool. Just remember to focus on making it a map editor, not a scenario editor. Let us place our own objects, place cover spots, place mountains, all that fun stuff. Make it so the common gamer can use it, but leave some more stuff in for the more experienced. As Link has said, take some advice from the Time Splitter games. Fortress Maps in Skirmish *Color for Identification- The threads a little scrambled, but Echos did a good job with it. There would be some symbol editor for your skirmish profile (like in Dawn of War). You would choose the symbol that you wanted for your team. Your team color in a skirmish would reflect in the symbol. If you are the green team, then only the symbol is green, the units remain their designated colors. This makes sure the covenant ranking system isn’t mixed up. The symbol floats above the soldiers, so you know who is who. It only pops up if the soldiers are selected.***Dead Bodies- Another one of those simple things to keep in mind for ES. Have dead bodies on the battlefield. They eventually sink into the ground, but their weapons remain. If these bodies or weapons are exposed to any sort of explosive, they disappear. Someone mentioned a dead body cap that you could pre-set, but I don’t think it’s needed. Just have a little timer. Moreover, if someone were hit by a heavy explosive, then they wouldn’t have any body left, so don’t give them one.*Kill Moves- Give units cool execution/melee moves when they switch to hand-to-hand. Did I hear someone say, “Curb stomp?”*Subtitles- Several people from the deaf community have asked that subtitles be added in the game. I give them credit for coming on these forums in the first place, and hope ES honors their requests.*T for Teen- Keep Halo Wars “T”. I know that it is fun to add lots of blood, and have the marines cuss at each other. I really don’t mind, but my parents really don’t like anything of that sort, and I (and I’m sure there are even more out there) wouldn’t be able to get this game. ***USB Mouse and Keyboard- Personally, I think that the game will do fine if it’s on a controller. But for the rest of the crowd, it would be nice to see the game have the ability to use the USB mouse and keyboard.***Vision Cam- This one’s simple enough. For those of use who do have one, it’d be pretty cool to see some implementation of the Xbox Live Vision Cam in Halo Wars.2 Disks-At one point I was getting worried that all of the stuff that we were trying to fit into this game wouldn’t fit on one disc. Dmand informed me that it would probably be on a DVD, and that put my heart to rest. I too now believe that there will be no problem storage-wise.To end off this whole thing, I thought I’d show a thread of what this game could also be. It could very well go with most of the other ideas here. If this game is too far into development, then I would plead to ES to make their next game with this system. Let me tell you folks, this is a must read. An Overlooked Idea If I have missed something that you feel was important, you think I missed something critical in the explanation of an idea, a faulty link, or even basic spelling errors (don’t be obnoxious) please do tell me.
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